Depending on your age and perspective, you may or may not have fond memories of the three Rambo films. Where the first one was rather circumspect about America’s role in Vietnam, the sequels went all in on a might-is-right jingoism that combined adrenaline-infused action, rippling muscles and improbable set pieces with deeply queasy politics. New Hindi action-movie Yodha is cut from similar cloth.
We’re introduced to our hero, Arun (Sidharth Malhotra) as a young boy who worships his soldier father, who is then promptly killed leaving some big Freudian boots to fill. Arun vows he will either live to be worthy of wearing the uniform of his dad’s badass task force, the “Yodha” of the title, or else his “corpse will be wrapped in our flag”. Many bone-crunching displays of patriotism follow over the subsequent two hours. These are facilitated by Arun’s ability to fight like an absolute machine, and also practically teleport himself, popping up wherever the bad guys don’t want him to be.
